Thrasher Magazine

Photo: Burnett

Tyson: What’s your full name?
Kyle: Kyle Anthony Walker.

How old are you?
I am 24 years young.

Where are you from?
I was born in Louisville, Texas, but I’m more from Oklahoma.

Let’s get to the point: what did it feel like to get SOTY?
I don’t know. I don’t think there’s an explanation for it. It still doesn’t feel real. It was a wild feeling, for sure.

You’re filming for the new Vans video. How is that going?
I hopped in late on it because we had a soldier that left. It’s going good. Hella mannys and ledge lines. Not as much sailing. It’s kind of stressful because I hopped in late. I’m stoked on how the part came out. Lovell picked out a sick song—UGK.

I know you like getting hyped before skating. What do you like listening to?
We be bumping that NBA, Chief Keef, we got Ballout. Who else we need?

Don’t forget the G.
Oh yeah, G Herbo. As Level Up would say, 
J Herbo. Sorry, Lovell. All that good shit.

How’s it having Matt B as the TM on Vans trips?
Swaggy B. You already know, he be skating all the demos. Switch flip front boarding rails at the park. Better yet, team manager hopping in the van, whipping it, asking us what we doing and what we need. Holding it down, Matt B. Living legend.


How’s 2018 going so far?
Going good. Trying to keep the productiveness going. Trying to save some money. Just got a new car, the dream car. 
We be cruising the streets, getting these clips.

What kind of car?
The Benz.

What year?
2017.

Have you ever killed an animal?
Uh, I guess a deer. They’re kind of nature’s big rats so they kind of need to go every now and then.

Do you believe in ghosts?
Of course, yeah. I’ve never seen one but I believe in them.

What’s the grossest thing you’ve ever eaten?
It was almost pigs feet on KOTR. That’s a hard question. I don’t even know.

Run it up, air it out! Tyson and K-Walks, back to back     Photo: Burnett

Anything in China, Australia, Barcelona?
Oh! My first time in Thailand, Dustin ordered something that was called a 100-year-old egg. They soak the egg for three or six months in some shit and it just smells really foul. I tried a bite. I had rabbit one time, actually. We were camping in Mammoth and Remy came back on the 4Runner and they hit a rabbit on the way in, smashed it. We ended up cooking it up. P-Stone dissected it and skinned it perfectly. He ate the heart. Him and I think Remy. But yeah, I ate the rabbit. I put a little hot sauce on there. Tasted like chicken. It was fire.

Do you like camping?
I fuck with camping. I don’t go that 
often but if it’s with the right people, I’m definitely down.

Have you ever been attacked by an animal, other than a dog or a cat?
That’s a negative. I have been bit by a dog in downtown Long Beach, though.

Oh my God. A random dog?
Yeah, a random dog. I was pissed. Me and Madison were about to go break our lease because the apartment we were in was just boof. It was already a bad situation with people fucking us over, so we were just trying to get out. The dog bit me right before we went in to the office. I went in heated just, like, “This is what’s going down!” and they just gave me my deposit back.

Damn, that sucks.
Yeah, it was right on the kneecap, too.

Stitches?
Nah, no stitches. I was pissed, though. I was, like, “You need to fuckin’ maintain your dog!” I’m a dog lover, too, but I was, like, “What the fuck?!”

Funny, because that’s my next question: do you prefer dogs or cats?
Obviously dogs. Dogs all day.

Yeah, obviously dogs because you don’t have a cat.
Yeah, no cats around here. I’m hella allergic, so is Madison. No cats.

What is the strangest place you’ve ever taken a shit?
The weirdest one, on some dumbass shit, me and the homie were at this waterpark you could skate. We snuck in during the winter but it still had the water and we took a shit in it. I was definitely on some young shit. I almost feel bad that I did that. They were about to drain it anyways, so we just gave it a little bloop.

Wow. That’s funny. Is there any heavy-metal music that you enjoy?
I fuck with Slayer.

Chima fucks with Slayer, too.
Yeah, I fuck with Slayer. Can’t go wrong with Slayer trying to get a rev. What’s the other one? Mercyful-something, with the song “Gypsy” that Raven skated to. I think it’s Mercyful Fate. I’m going to go with Slayer and Mercyful Fate and that’s about it.

Kyle fired up to sink the Smith     Photo: Burnett

Who is someone that you would never want to room with on a trip?
I don’t think anyone really gets under my skin except heavy snorers. 
I know a lot of the homies that snore. The first trip I roomed with Cody Green; he is a chainsaw. I love you, Cody, and you already know. Bro can snore! After like 30 minutes I had to put a pillow over him. 
I think I got a 45-second window.


Are you artistic at all?
I like designing clothes and shit like that. Actually, my mom got me some canvases for Christmas. I might start painting a little. Those fools sell paintings for like 40Gs a painting! Let me just splatter some paint. It’s pretty easy, right?

How are you as a freestyler?
Like rapping? I would say at the right point when I’m faded maybe a few bars. But no, I just be getting turnt. I know you like to freestyle!

Photo: Burnett

Who is the best freestyler on the Vans team?
Probably you. You or Matt B could lay some bars down.

What was your first tattoo?
It was 238, because at one point me, Clive and Mills lived together. That was back in Oklahoma and I didn’t know what to get. I just wanted to know the feeling so I got 238. I got it in the worst spot on my lower left ankle and it hurt like a bitch.

What is your worst tattoo?
I just got a little skateboard on my ankle, too, a little Crailtap. That one goes. All of them kind of mean something. This one is just a random-ass stork on my right arm. I saw one in Australia on a rainy day. I didn’t get it there but we went to Hong Kong and we went out and got some tattoos. It was super dope. The spot looked out over the water and you could see the whole skyline of the city.

That sounds tight.
What about you? What was your first tattoo?

A sad face and a smiley face.
Lil’ happy/sad. Best of both worlds. Did that shit hurt?

Yeah. It’s small but it hurt, dude.
Stick and poke?

Yeah. Who were the skaters you idolized as a kid?
Obviously all of the older homies that were shredding, but pro-wise, Reynolds. This one is a hard one. Leo Romero.

What about Bryan Herman?
Herman, fosho. The whole Emerica This is Skateboarding video, no doubt. There’s so many people. Heath. It’s hard to think when it’s on the spot. Been looking up to Rowley, AVE, Chima.


Thank God for the homies with spots like this! Tyson smashed a feeble     Photo: Burnett

Speaking of legends and professionals, were you more of a Muska fan or a Jamie Thomas fan?
Both, honestly. I loved both. Dying to Live, I watched that so much. Jon Allie. I love both.

Did you ever wear Osiris D3s?
Nah, never. I wish I had some, though.

Have you ever burnt the roof of your mouth eating hot pizza?
Probably half of the time. Depends on how hungry I am. I ordered a pizza last night and I didn’t burn myself.

Do you believe God would answer Paul Rodriguez’ prayers to land a trick in a skate contest?
Whatever he’s praying about, it works. That motherfucker has been doing it and is still doing it.

What’s the most expensive item you’ve ever stolen?
Probably some bubble gum when I was hella young. I can’t be stealing out here. It never really crossed my mind growing up.

Tyson is a low key hucker. Backside whirly bird in KC, smooth AF     Photo: Burnett

I feel that. What’s the most expensive item you’ve bought, not including your car or your house?
I probably spent $5,000.

Five-thousand?! On what?
A motherfucking coat! That’s a Chief Keef verse, by the way. He said four, though. “I spent fo’ bands on a coat!”


Last question: what were you like when you were 15?
I was definitely skating. I was just trying to get out of Oklahoma. In all honesty, me and my mom were arguing—well, not arguing. I was just trying to get out to California to skate up. There wasn’t really anything going on in Oklahoma. Tried to finish school early and I was, like, fuck it. As a parent, my mom and dad were sketched but took the chance and it worked out. I was a little shithead trying to get out of Oklahoma. Getting caught smoking weed. Now we out here. We doing it. Okay, now it’s time for me to ask you some questions Is this your first actual interview?

Yeah, I’m pretty sure.
Let these people know: how old are you and where are you from?

Photo: Muller

I’m Tyson Alexander Peterson, 21 years young, from Melbourne, Florida. Not a lot of people know about that; it’s a little beach town. Now I live in Long Beach, California, right by Cherry Park.
Are you enjoying it out here?

Yeah, I love Long Beach. I love California. I think it’s because of the weather.
You really cannot beat the weather.

Every day, blue skies.
When did you move out here from Florida?

I moved to Long Beach permanently about two years ago.
How was it filming for this Vans video? Did it seem like a lot of pressure?

Honestly, it’s kind of crazy. I can’t believe I get to be a part of something so cool and being able to skate with such awesome people. It’s a little stressful but you definitely want to do the best you can. The people we skate with, they’re all so fun to skate with, they’ll make it not as stressful. Everything came pretty natural.
Are you stoked on how the part is looking?

Yeah, I’m stoked on how my part looks. I’m stoked on how the whole video looks. Ryan nailed it.
Do you think the dreads will ever go?

I don’t think they’ll ever go. If my mom heard you talking about this, she would tell you not to even ask that question.
I had to ask.

There was a point three years ago that I wanted to cut them but now they’re stuck. It’s me.
If you could only have one for the rest of your life, weed or cornbread, which one would it be?

K-Walks, frontside flip in the clouds     Photo: Darwen

Weed. Always weed. Any day. I love marijuana.
If you could have any sponsor—

Weedmaps. Hit my line. I got you guys.
What happened the first time you ever smoked?

The first time, it was super mellow. It was New Year’s eve and the ball was about to drop. It was 2016.
The first time you ever smoked was 2016?


It was out of a one-hitter, the ones that look like a cigarette. I was scared! It was my friend Drew from back home. I was, like, This is it. This could be when I turn into a pothead.
Obviously it was.

Yeah. It was. Anyways, so we packed a little one-hitter. I hit it, we start coughing. I’m chillin’ and I start kinda feeling something. So I hit it again, and kept hitting it. I was, like, “Holy shit, I feel weird. I’m stoned.” We start laughing. It was midnight. I’m telling you, time went by so fast. It became 4:30 in the morning.
You time traveled.

Late night BART stops are always good places to make friends. Tyson kicky wallrides the new homie photo     Sequence: Burnett

My friends asked if I was hungry. I’m starving. I’m thinking, this is the munchies. This must be what the munchies is. We walked to McDonald’s in the rain at 4:30 in the morning. We got breakfast and ended up coming home and went to sleep.
So you walked in the rain?

I walked in the rain, high. My first time just super stoned and happy. It was funny. But then I was, like, Alright, that went good. Now I can smoke weed all the time! The second time I smoked weed was totally bad. I thought I was gonna die. I hit the bong, like, four times. I felt it 15 minutes later. We’re sitting there playing Skate 3. I was, like, “Guys, I gotta call my mom. My heart’s beating. I’m about to die.” I got out of the house and started trippin’.
She picked you up?

Yeah, she picked me up. I’ve been high ever since.
You’ve been high ever since that day.

Literally. The only days I missed out were in China.
It’s not worth it over there.

Nope.
What’s your reasoning behind not wearing boxers?

I don’t wear boxers because when I went on my first Vans trip a year and a half ago, I was wearing boxers at the time but I ran out on the trip and I didn’t bring enough. I didn’t want to ask, “Oh, can I go get boxers?” I don’t know. Fuck it. I’m not gonna wear boxers. That was the fourth day in and ever since I haven’t worn them. People definitely think it’s weird but I’m comfortable now. I found myself.
What’s the craziest thing that has happened on a skate session?

Gap to up slide? K-Walks handles a weird one photo  Photo: Burnett

The most recent thing that I can remember is we lit up a spot in Santa Ana. It was me, Doughnut, Cody and Dakota. Dakota goes into a massage place. He’s never gotten a massage before, so we’re, like, “Dude, go get one!” So he walks in, pays 20 dollars. He’s getting a massage. Homie is skating this rail all lit up and everything. Dakota comes out, like, “Dude! I just got a massage with a happy ending!” We’re all, like, “No way.” I low-key tried to slide in there but they closed. So the lights are on and across the street there’s a bar. The lights cut off because we ran out of gas and two dudes run up on us and pull guns out. Two dudes pull guns out and start yelling, “Where are you from?!”
Cops?!


No, just two dudes! Two random dudes. I’m like, “I’m from Florida!” Cody’s, like, “I’m from Texas!” We’re all saying this shit. There are two guns so close to us. 
All of us were freaking out. The homie, Christian, he dipped. Hey, Christian, thanks for fuckin’ dippin’! We skate together, we gotta die together, dog. It was crazy.
He hit the Houdini.

No cornbread in China? Tyson toughs it out with a frontside flip into the triple dip     Photo: Muller

Yeah, he hit the Houdini. Gone.
Damn, sketch. Random people, too.

He tried taking Ish’s board!
Was this late at night?

Yeah, it was like 11pm in Santa Ana. I was, like, “Yo! Don’t take my roommates board!” Because he tried to take Ish’s board. I was, like, “I’ll give you weed!” and they threw the board back and didn’t even take the weed. They were just 
G checkin’ us.
Yeah, just seeing what y’all were about. Good thing they didn’t fully jack you on everything. Damn, that’s gnarly. Just recently?

Yeah. I couldn’t sleep.
That’s hectic. What about that time you got kidnapped? Or should I say, I heard you got kidnapped.

Tyson front blunts, security creepin’     Photo: Hammeke

It’s a long story but I can try to make it short. It was my 16th birthday. We’re in Lexington, South Carolina. I’m with my friends Andre, Michael and Chandler. We’re cruising back from a spot and a homie calls that they don’t know, talking all this shit saying, “Yo, meet me at the gas station.” I text him, like, “Call my phone and say you’re trying to fight me,” or whatever. So he calls my phone. I put it on speaker in front of the homies. He’s saying, “Yo, pull up at this gas station!” So we’re acting all crazy and shit. We pull up on this gas station and those dudes are sitting in the car. I run up on this dude. They grab me and they put me in the car and I start screaming out of the window—loud. Yelling for somebody to help me. Everyone at the gas station thought it was real. The homies called the cops, like, “My friend just got kidnapped!” We’re at this gas station, I was in the car and dabbing my homies out. They totally thought I got kidnapped. We made a circle around a big-ass parking lot and we pull back in. My homies are freaking out on the phone, so I tell them, “Give it a good five feet and I’m gonna jump out and make it look like you threw me out.” We get right by them and I jump out and roll. They were, like, “Dude! The cops are on the way!” and I was, like, “No! No! Those are my friends!” They were, like, “You gotta be kidding me.”
I’m sure you made that shit look hella real.


Literally ten cop cars came, fucking trucks, there were two helicopters. The cops got me and started talking to me, put me in handcuffs. They called my mom. My friends called my sister when I was in the car with my other homies. My mom really thought I got kidnapped. My sister started crying and couldn’t tell my mom what happened. My mom broke down crying.
I mean, what do you expect when you’re told your child has been kidnapped?

Front tail, front heel—the K-Walks special photo     Sequence: Burnett

Yeah. The cops took me home and my mom was just crying. I was, like, “It was a joke; I wasn’t thinking.”
That’s why she told me to ask that question. Were you a prankster the whole time you were growing up?

I was a prankster, for sure, trying to scare everyone. I still am. I scared Ish the other day! I walk up to the house and the door was locked so I had to go through the window. The curtain fell and made a loud noise. Ish was in the shower listening to music. I go up to the door and pound on it and he was, like, “Oh shit.” He reaches his head out the window and he’s soaking wet with pants on. Soap is all over him and the window is open. He goes, “Dude. I was really about to jump out of the window. I thought we were getting robbed.”
Oh my God. New spot, too? Just, like, “What is going on?!”

This thing had “sack” written all over it. K-Walks, gap to lip     Photo: Burnett

Crazy. But I like pranking people.
When was your first fight? Have you ever been in a fight?

I’ve been in a fight. I used to fight a lot when I was younger.
Did you get in a fight in the fifth grade?

Yeah. I got in a fight in the fifth grade with this dude. He called my sister an “Oreo bitch.” I went in. I’m not a fighter and I’m not hard or anything but at the time I was just a crazy little kid.
You gotta stick up for your sister.

I just started getting down and it ended bad for him. He went home and told his parents. His parents came to my house, asking why their son had a black eye. My parents said, “Your son called my daughter an Oreo bitch so my son beat him up.” So they were, like, “Okay.” I forget his name, but he had to tell my sister he was sorry. He lived in the same neighborhood, too, so I would see him sometimes.
Would you buck up on him?

I feel like I did the first couple times. I feel like we became friends again, riding bikes around and shit. Smoking on paper. We’d roll up paper! We wouldn’t inhale it but we’d blow smoke out.
I’m gonna ask you the same question you asked me: where is the craziest place you’ve taken a shit?

While Sieben holds down the ditches, Tyson zipped a boardslide through the knobs at UT Austin. Scorchin’ Summer ’17     Photo: Burnett

Craziest place I ever took a shit was at my school. I took a shit on Red Bank Elementary school—on top of it.
On the roof?


Yeah. We were skating this five stair and I had to take a shit. We got on the roof and were fucking around, throwing rocks and shit. I was probably 12. I was young. I took a shit on top of the roof. There was one other time where I took a shit on my playground under the swings. I sat on the swing set and pulled my pants down and shit. I came to school the next day and I saw the same shit. I told my friends, “I did that.”
That’s my poop, bruh.

There was one time in seventh grade I shit my pants at school. I sharted and I went to the bathroom. I called my mom, like, “You gotta come get me. I shit my pants!” I wiped my ass and everything, hung the boxers on the door. I get to class and sit there for a minute. Perfect timing—I hear over the intercom, “Tyson Peterson is dismissed.” So I was out that bitch. I went home and took a shower.
So you started shitting yourself once a week to go home.

Low-key, I should have.
I sharted for the first time a couple months ago. I was sick as hell. 
I was always, like, how do you shart? How is that possible? It happened, and it sucks.

Big spin a triple with bonus fire cracker on the way out. K-Walks can’t stop photo     Sequence: Hammeke

That shit sucks.
Literally. What you got planned for 2018? You got the new spot, you’re about to drop a part, your knee is healthy, you living good, the sunshine is out, what you got in store?

Basically start skating again and start working on the Element video.
When is that dropping?

I heard it got pushed back to September so we got a bit, which I’m stoked on.
You’ve been done with that one for a bit, though, right?

Not the Element video. I have for the Vans but the Element I’m slacking. Now that I have a couple months, I’m about to have some fun.

What it’s all about     Photo:Burnett